Email is primary form of environmental communication in America today

Facebook is cool. Twitter is red hot. Blogging is not as cool as it used to be, but I still do it anyway.

And Email rules. It rules. According to this latest survey from Marketing Sherpa, when Internet users come across something that gets their attention, they are still more than three times as likely to share it via email as they are to share it with some social media service. Here’s more:

• When I survey the members of nature protection and pollution control organizations, they always rate email as the #1 way to stay in touch. Always. The website is usually #2 and social media services like Facebook are usually #5 or #6.
• And for good measure, when my clients review their donation records, they almost always find that email subscribers write bigger checks more often than than those who only receive mail.

I absolutely encourage my clients and readers to take up social media — it’s come a long way in a few years and will continue to grow in importance – but the #1 priority for any organization looking to run a modern communication and membership operation is email. Here are four basic bits of advice:

• Get a modern blast email tool. Modern tools handle large lists easily and work hard to keep your emails out of spam filters (some will end up there no matter what). You have many good choices here, but I like Vertical Response because they’ll give 10,000 free email per month to nonprofit organizations and offer pay-as-you-go subscriptions for everybody else. Oh yeah, they’re one of my advertisers.
• Target your emails. With modern tools, you can target your blasts by zip code and lots of other criteria. This helps you make sure your emails are relevant and the people who receive them are happy to do so.
• Review your performance. The most important number to look at is your “open rate” — an approximation of the number of people who open your email. If your average is less than 1 in 4, then you have a problem. If it’s more than half, bust out the bubbly and celebrate.
• Stay on the hunt for more subscribers. Some of them will drop out each year no matter how fascinating your emails are, so put those signup forms on your website and everywhere else you can think of.

If you’re using something besides Vertical Response — say Constant Contact or iContact, why not share your experience working with it?